Optical vault: reconfigurable bottle beam by conically refracted light

TL;DR

This paper introduces an optical bottle created through conical refraction in a biaxial crystal, enabling dynamic trapping and manipulation of particles with polarization-controlled opening and closing.

Contribution

It demonstrates a novel method to reconfigure an optical trap using conical refraction, allowing for controlled loading and unloading of particles.

Findings

Stable photophoretic trapping achieved.

Trap opening and closing controlled by polarization.

Experimental validation of particle manipulation.

Abstract

We employ conical refraction of light in a biaxial crystal to create an optical bottle for trapping and manipulation of particles. We show that by just varying the polarization of the input light the bottle can be opened and closed at will. We experimentally demonstrate stable photophoretic trapping and controllable loading and unloading of light absorbing particles in the trap.